With 160 million ha in 2020, forests cover approximately 39% of the EU-28’s land area that is key to biodiversity conservation, carbon storage and the provision of renewable raw materials for the bio-based economy. European forests are experiencing rapid climate change characterized by high uncertainty in its timing and magnitude. Climate change increases forest vulnerability to damage and disease, fostering abiotic and biotic threats that affect forest sustainability and cause severe economic losses.
The strategic goal of B4EST was to increase forest resilience and productivity under climate change, while maintaining genetic diversity and key ecological functions and fostering a competitive EU bio-based economy. To cover the geographical, economic and societal needs of forestry in Europe, B4EST aimed to work with 8 conifer and broadleaves with advanced breeding programmes or case studies of pest-threatened forests.
To reach its goal, B4EST aimed to achieve the following scientific, technological and implementation breakthroughs:
1) Provide better scientific knowledge of species vulnerability to major disturbances and of trade-offs between production, resistance/resilience and reproductive capacity. Responses of species and populations to climate trends and major disturbances (frost, drought, biotic attacks) have been learnt from both long-term field genetic tests, experiments in controlled environments and identification of specific genetic adaptations. If well-documented trade-offs between growth, reproduction behaviour, tolerance to abiotic and biotic stressors and wood quality have been confirmed in different environments, new results did not show evident limitations for multi-trait breeding.
2) Diversify the portfolio of forest reproductive material (FRM), which requires the: i) identification of relevant species, gene pools and genotypes, ii) definition of optimal genetic diversity to preserve the adaptive capacity of planted forests under high uncertainty, and iii) development of cost- and time-efficient breeding strategies that meet the diversity and rapid change of environmental and economic contexts. Specific efforts were made on the evaluation of adaptive capacity (genetic variation at provenance and individual levels) and phenotypic plasticity patterns for response to abiotic (frost, drought) and biotic stresses. A conceptual approach of selection based on group (population) performance was developed and simulation studies showed that adapted silviculture scenarios based on genetic diversity management could help to maintain performance at stand level.
3) Make the portfolio of FRM accessible to forest managers through decision tools and recommendations. Local and regional assessment of vulnerabilities and opportunities is crucial to identifying efficient adaptation strategies. The industrial partners in the consortium were to address this challenge from the end-user perspective. Guidelines for deployment and silvicultural management of improved FRM accounting for climate projections, risks of natural disturbances, and end-user requirements and acceptance have been produced and provide a link towards decision tools developed and popularized on the project website and during stakeholder events.
4) Integrate a landscape-level view and a transnational forest sector analysis of risks, costs and benefits. For four different regions in Europe, research teams together with stakeholders identified the most important challenges and goals related to the use of improved FRM and outlined alternative deployment and management strategies currently under evaluation.
